In a significant win for the American taxpayer, Dr. Mehmet Oz, well-known for his appearance on TV, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator revealed an internal review found over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to illegal immigrants across several states, which he noted the Democrats covered up.
Building on this point, Oz said that the taxpayer should not cover healthcare for people who don’t pay into the system, states like California, which offer massive benefits for illegal immigrants, at the expense of normal people.
This issue has been a significant contributing factor to the government shutdown, and Republicans have accused their opponents of misallocating federal funds. The White House noted that the Democrats’ proposals, which would resume this disastrous plan, could cost $200 billion over a decade for non-citizen healthcare.
Starting off his comments, Oz laid the blame at the feet of the Democrats. “The Democrats have been gaslighting us on this issue of Medicaid funds going to illegal immigrants for quite a while,” he said to explain the situation.
Additionally, he said that blue states disproportionally take funding from conservative areas. “If you live in Texas or Florida, and you’re paying U.S. federal taxes – most people do – your money is being diverted to places like California, which have robust benefits for illegal immigrants,” Dr. Oz added.
Wrapping up, he explained that he was launching an investigation into this unbelievable scandal. “Now we’re investigating it, and we’re [going to] continue to track this across the country,” the former TV star noted.
Reacting to the revelation, the White House issued a statement, saying, “Democrats’ proposal would result in nearly $200 billion spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants and other non-citizens over the next decade — enough to fund the entire Children’s Health Insurance Program.”
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Providing additional moral context, Dr Oz declared, “You can’t just dole that out to able-bodied illegal immigrants in states because they think it’s the right thing to do. If they want to pay for it, they should pay for it.”
Concluding his comments, he promised to return these ill-gotten gains. Dr. Oz stated, “We will get all that money back into our federal coffers. The president is laser-focused on protecting the U.S. taxpayer.”
As the American Tribune reported, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to close a tax “loophole” that enabled this unfair practice. The agency noted that the “projected to save taxpayers more than $30 billion over five years and continues CMS’s work in ensuring this vital safety net continues to be available for the country’s most vulnerable populations in the future. These arrangements allow states to benefit from a budget surplus to reinvest in unrelated programs.”
Speaking at the time, Dr. Oz said, “the new proposed arrangements stop the ‘shell game’ by making sure that Medicaid funding goes exclusively ‘to pay for health care for vulnerable Americans who rely on this program, not to plug state budget holes or bankroll benefits for noncitizens.'”